NewEnergyNews

Gleanings from the web and the world, condensed for convenience, illustrated for enlightenment, arranged for impact...

While the OFFICE of President remains in highest regard at NewEnergyNews, this administration's position on the climate crisis makes it impossible to regard THIS president with respect. Below is the NewEnergyNews theme song until 2020.

The skyrocketing growth of utility-scale renewables and distributed energy resources (DER) is stoking a need to develop new grid technologies, business models and customer programs. As a result, utilities face crucial decisions about investing shareholder and ratepayer money. Pilots are being used mainly to test the possibilities, North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center Policy Manager Autumn Proudlove recently told Utility Dive. For the new pilot report, RMI partnered with Consolidated Edison (ConEd), Avista Utilities, and Arizona Public Service (APS). ConEd Director Jamie Brennan told Utility Dive debates about real data from pilots are less ideological, more analytical, and enable more effective stakeholder engagement… click here for more

Editor’s note: Policy to support the wholesale market use of DER is still being developed.

Two California energy storage providers successfully bid aggregations of automated load reductions into the California wholesale market multiple times during a June 2017 heat wave but the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) told Utility Dive that it did not have DER aggregations bidding into its market. The discrepancy is due to terminology. DERs include energy efficiency, behind-the-meter (BTM) storage, and distributed generation like rooftop solar. But they also include traditional demand response, which is the CAISO wholesale market product in which DER are being used. Demand response falls under the California statutory definition of DER and providing demand response is one path to the wholesale market for DER, though only for DER like storage that do not inject power into the grid.

The other path is for aggregators of distributed resources to use the a separate tariff approved by regulators last year. But that introduces the more complicated issue of power delivered back into the grid, Tisdale told Utility Dive. Across the nation, DER providers and grid operators are facing similar issues that prevent aggregated resources from offering their full suite of benefits to the grid. New work to resolve the communications and operational issues could provide a way forward for DER, but in the meantime the resources are getting a foot in the door through the well-established role of demand response providers… click here for more

Tuesday, February 27, 2018

TODAY’S STUDY: The Fight For Plug-In Vehicles Right Now

The purpose of this report is to provide state and local lawmakers and regulators, electric utilities, the electric power industry, the transportation industry, and other energy stakeholders with timely, accurate, and unbiased updates about how states are choosing to study, adopt, implement, amend, or discontinue policies associated with electric vehicles. This report catalogues proposed and approved legislative, regulatory, and utility rate design changes affecting electric vehicles during the most recent quarter, as well as state and investor-owned utility proposals to deploy electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

Approach

The authors identified relevant policy changes and deployment proposals through state utility commission docket searches, legislative bill searches, popular press, and direct communications with stakeholders and regulators in the industry.

This report focuses on cataloguing and describing important proposed and adopted policy changes related to electric vehicles. For the purpose of this report, the definition of electric vehicle includes all-electric vehicles (EVs), hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), and plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs). In order to explore all policy actions related to electric vehicles, this report catalogs and describes actions related to the deployment of electric vehicle charging equipment, which is often referred to as electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE). Additionally, the electric grid is impacted by electric vehicle charging, so legislative and regulatory actions related to electric utilities are included in this report.

In general, this report considers an “action” to be a relevant (1) legislative bill that has been introduced, (2) executive order, or (3) regulatory docket, utility rate case, or rulemaking proceeding. Only statewide actions and those related to investor-owned utilities are included in this report. Specifically, actions tracked in this issue include:

Studies and Investigations

Legislative or regulatory-led efforts to study electric vehicles specifically, or electric vehicles as part of a broader grid modernization study or investigation.

New state policy proposals or changes to existing policies aimed at growing the electric vehicle market.

Financial Incentives

New state or investor-owned utility incentive programs or changes to existing incentive programs for electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.

State and Utility Deployment

‘Utility-initiated requests, as well as proposed legislation, to deploy electric vehicles or charging infrastructure.

Actions Excluded

This report currently excludes actions taken by utilities that are not state-regulated, such as municipal utilities and electric cooperatives in many states. The report also excludes actions related to grid modernization without an explicit electric vehicle component, as well as actions related to general time-varying rates not specific to electric vehicle charging; these types of actions are tracked in the 50 States of Grid Modernization report series.

2017 Electric Vehicle Action

In 2017, 43 states plus DC took a total of 227 legislative and regulatory actions related to electric vehicles. Table 1 provides a summary of state and utility actions occurring during 2017. Of the 227 actions catalogued, the most common were related to Regulation (70), followed by Financial Incentives (53), and Market Development (36).

Six of the year’s most notable electric vehicle policy trends are noted below.

Policymakers and Regulators Addressing Barriers to Charging Infrastructure Development

Many state legislatures and regulatory commissions are working to address existing barriers to charging infrastructure development. Some legislatures considered bills to prohibit homeowner associations from restricting charging installations, while other legislatures and commissions addressed rules relating to public utility regulation and the resale of electricity.

Investigation of Electric Vehicles as Part of Broader Grid Modernization Efforts

As many states initiate broad investigations into grid modernization, electric vehicles are frequently being addressed in these discussions. Working groups or presentations related to electric vehicles were included as part of several of these proceedings, including those in Illinois, Maryland, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

Funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure is moving beyond support for Level 2 charging, with several states and utilities considering new funding for DC fast charging. Efforts to fund medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles are also underway, as broader electrification of the transportation sector is considered.

Utilities Proposing Dedicated Electric Vehicle Charging Rates

Increasing attention is being paid to rate design for electric vehicle charging, with utilities working to encourage electric vehicle owners to charge their vehicles during periods of low system peak demand, while avoiding charging during periods of peak demand. Several utilities proposed new charging tariffs or the extension of pilot tariffs during 2017, while some states are directing utilities to develop tariffs for electric vehicle charging.

States and utilities took a total of 53 actions related to electric vehicles and charging infrastructure during 2017. While a small number of these actions aimed to reduce or shorten existing incentive programs, the majority of these actions would create new financial incentives, or extend or expand the eligibility requirements for existing incentive programs.

States Considering Additional Fees for Electric Vehicle Owners

The most common type of action taken in 2017 was the consideration of additional fees for electric vehicles. Many states are facing declining gasoline tax revenue, due to increasing vehicle efficiency and adoption of alternative fuel vehicles, and are looking to make up this shortfall by establishing additional registration or other fees for electric and hybrid vehicles.

QUICK NEWS, February 27: The High Cost Of The Cold On The Mid-Atlantic Grid; Southeast’s Utilities Starting To See The Sun

“Millennials overwhelmingly believe human-caused climate change is real and that steps must be taken to slow it…[ A new poll shows] 77 percent of millennials think the U.S. should take steps to slow or stop climate change…80 percent say they are more concerned with pollution than gun violence (70 percent) and immigration (58 percent)…70 percent think climate change will affect them in their lifetimes…62 percent believe human activity is responsible for climate change…51 percent of Republicans are concerned about climate change…[and] 57 percent of millennials believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction on the climate change issue…” click here for more

“…The grid connecting 65 million people in Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states served well during this winter’s cold snap…Though not as severe as the 2014 Polar Vortex, the cold snap demonstrated [the PJM Interconnection’s system remains] reliable, according to PJM Cold Snap Performance…On Jan. 5, 2018, demand reached 137,522 megawatts, which is the sixth highest overall winter peak demand…[but even] during peak demand, PJM had excess reserves and capacity…[However, the report adds, the 11-fold increase in uplift charges] during the cold snap shows the need to reform pricing for energy and reserves…Uplift is paid to generators when locational marginal prices do not cover the costs of units needed to serve load. Over the last several years, uplift charges have been relatively low in PJM, averaging approximately $389,000 per day. By contrast, during the peak days of the cold snap, uplift charges averaged approximately $4.3 million per day…” click here for more

“…[Using the metric “watts per customer,” which looks at the amount of installed solar relative to the total number of customers served, a new report provides] detailed information at the regional, state, and utility level…[about solar in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. It shows Duke Energy Progress, Duke Energy Carolinas, and Georgia Power as] the region’s current solar leaders…[It recognizes] seven utilities with the highest forecasted solar growth by 2021…[and] identifies three major utility systems - Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Santee Cooper, and Seminole Electric Cooperative – as laggards…for low levels of solar development over the next four years…Leading states like North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia have enacted strong policies…[U]tilities in other Southeastern states – particularly Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi – continue to operate in a public policy vacuum…” click here for more

TODAY’S STUDY: How To Use All The New Energy Tools

• Wind and solar energy costs are at record lows and are forecast to keep falling, leading to greater adoption, but the mismatch of weather-driven resources and electricity demand can lead to lower revenues and higher risks of curtailment for renewable energy projects, potentially inhibiting new project investment.

• Using an hourly simulation of a future, highly-renewable Texas power system, we show how using demand flexibility in eight common end-use loads to shift demand into periods of high renewable availability can increase the value of renewable generation, raising revenues by 36% compared to a system with inflexible demand.

• Flexible demand of this magnitude could reduce renewable curtailment by 40%, lower peak demand net of renewables by 24%, and lower the average magnitude of multihour ramps (e.g., the “duck curve”) by 56%.

• Demand flexibility is cost-effective when compared with new gas-fired generation to balance renewables, avoiding approximately $1.9 billion of annual generator costs and 20% of total annual CO2 emissions in the modeled system.

• Policymakers, grid operators, and utility program designers need to incorporate demand flexibility as a core asset at all levels of system planning to unlock this value

More than half of the electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. grid in 2016 and 2017 came from renewable resources, largely driven by the precipitous price decline of wind and solar projects. While this scale of renewable generation has translated into millions of tons of avoided carbon emissions, this increase in supply also has implications for wholesale electricity markets. Because of its very low marginal costs, renewable generation displaces more-expensive producers, resulting in lower wholesale clearing prices, and in some circumstances leading to curtailment; i.e., forced reduction in power output. As the penetration of variable renewables increases and the risk of curtailment grows, new renewable capacity is exposed to lower prices. This value deflation can reduce the revenues of renewable projects, making the investment in and development of new renewable projects less attractive.

However, leveraging opportunities to shift load to better match the supply of renewables can mitigate the impacts of this value deflation. For years, utilities and market operators have used traditional demand response programs to send signals to consumers to reduce electricity consumption at times of high stress on the grid. Now, a new generation of communication and control technologies can enable “demand flexibility,” allowing major loads to continuously respond to changing renewable supply levels and other market signals.

Solar photovoltiacs’ (PV’s) impact on the grid most clearly illustrates the potential mismatch between renewable supply and end-use demand—and the opportunity for demand flexibility to address this mismatch. While solar generation reaches its peak around midday when the sun is high in the sky, peak demand usually occurs later in the afternoon and early evening as temperatures peak and families return home. To adjust this misalignment, demand flexibility technologies can shift electricity consumption from times of high load to hours with high renewable availability.

This load shift reduces overgeneration, lowers peak demand, and mitigates the steep ramping needed to serve high midafternoon electricity needs as the sun goes down. Previous RMI work has shown that demand flexibility can result in significant benefits at the household level. Figure 1 illustrates how a simulated residential customer in Hawaii could shift household electricity consumption to the middle of the day when PV generation peaks by using a suite of technologies, including battery energy storage, managed electric vehicle charging, and smart air conditioning controls.

Figure 1’s two different load profiles show how using automated communication and control technologies can shift electricity use across hours of the day, without any significant impact on the quality of service that a customer would receive from those end-use loads, and without requiring that customers are at home in the middle of the day waiting to use their washing machine during opportune times. At the household level, these demand flexibility technologies can lead to increased self-balancing and retail bill savings between 10% and 40%; at the level of a regional grid, the same technologies can significantly mitigate the price impacts of renewable energy.

Figure 2 below uses a representative dispatch curve for ERCOT’s service territory to show both the regional impact of renewable energy on clearing price in the wholesale market, as well as the mitigating effects of demand flexibility. The long blue arrow shows the impact renewable energy has on the clearing price: variable renewable energy reduces load that must be met by thermal generators, and the marginal cost to meet load declines accordingly, causing generator revenue to fall. However, increasing demand at times of high renewable availability, as illustrated by the red arrow, can raise this price, increasing revenues for renewable generation.

Utilities and system operators have decades of experience in deploying demand flexibility technologies to provide value to the grid, and increasingly to integrate variable renewable energy. Over 600 utilities have already deployed rate structures that reflect a more granular value of consumption, allowing customers that adopt flexibility technologies (e.g., smart thermostats) to realize sizeable bill savings as well as cost benefits at the system level.

Utilities across the U.S. are now considering demand flexibility as an important component of “non-wires alternatives” that can defer large infrastructure investments. For example, Central Hudson’s CenHub Peak Perks program compensates customers residing in key geographic areas to reduce energy use during times of peak demand using a Wi Fi-enabled smart thermostat or a program efficiency switch. Both Southern California Edison (SCE) and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) in California have initiated a number of projects focused on non-wires alternatives to support distribution system reliability and to address natural gas leaks, retirement of nuclear power plants, and particular areas of significant load growth. In Washington, Bonneville Power Authority recently gave up a long-term effort to build over $1 billion worth of new transmission and will be addressing this need with procurement of non-wires alternatives instead.

Table 1 describes a number of programs that have leveraged the capabilities of demand flexibility technologies to bring value to the grid. These offerings differ from traditional demand response programs as they are not designed to simply curtail consumption during times of high load; rather, the objective of these programs is to explicitly shift consumption to different times of the day, while maintaining the same level of daily electricity use…

Our analysis suggests that demand flexibility can play an important role in a low-cost, low-carbon grid. Near-term action in five areas can lay the groundwork for fully capturing this value:

• Include demand flexibility as a core resource in grid planning to avoid stranded generator investment. Demand flexibility can avoid significant investment and operational costs that would otherwise be spent on natural gas-fired generation to meet peak loads and balance renewable variability. However, without proactive planning that includes demand flexibility, there is a significant risk of duplicative investment in natural-gas power plants that may become stranded as demand flexibility becomes more cost-effective and commonplace. Utility planners, system operators, and regulators can mitigate this risk by improving planning processes and utilizing software tools that fully reflect the capabilities and value of demand flexibility.

• Account for demand flexibility when setting targets for highly renewable supply mixes. Many studies of highly renewable grids find a limit for renewable adoption, above which the marginal value of new renewable resources falls below their investment costs. Our analysis demonstrates that demand flexibility can significantly improve the revenue and system-level value of renewable energy, and suggests that the limit to renewable energy adoption is not fixed, and can rise dramatically if demand flexibility strategies are taken into account during planning and system operation. Policymakers, regulators, and utilities should carefully consider the potential of demand flexibility to help meet renewable energy-adoption targets of 50% and higher across the U.S.

• Pursue portfolios of renewables and demand flexibility to improve project economics. In some areas of the U.S, including California and the Midwest, revenues realized by renewable generation are already falling due to rising renewable adoption, grid congestion, and the inflexibility of other generators. Project developers and/or off-takers thus face price risks, and are increasingly bundling battery energy storage with renewables projects to mitigate exposure and increase value. Our analysis suggests that demand flexibility, as part of a broader resource portfolio, can also address these same price risks. Project developers and utilities should carefully evaluate the economics of resource portfolios composed of renewables and demand flexibility in order to optimize system value.

• Adjust utility earnings opportunities to encourage noncapital investments. Traditional cost-ofservice regulation rewards utilities for investments in capital they can include in their rate base. However, new regulatory tools, such as performance-based ratemaking, can allow utilities to still earn returns when using lower-cost and/or third party-owned demand flexibility as a grid resource. By addressing the incentives driving the utility business model, policymakers have the opportunity to significantly expand the role of demand flexibility in utility procurement decisions.

• Create customer incentives to increase flexibility-technology adoption and influence electricity consumption. The deployment of demand flexibility technologies depends on customer purchasing decisions and willingness to participate in new utility programs. Creating the right incentives, such as rebates or bill savings through time-varying rates, will be key to encouraging customer involvement in demand flexibility programs. Increased use of automation and control technologies and programs that promote participation of aggregated resources can improve the customer experience, providing nonmonetary incentives for customer participation.

Demand flexibility can be an important grid resource in the long run, cost-effectively balancing renewable energy to ease the transition to a low-carbon grid. Near-term action can lay the groundwork for scaled deployment of demand flexibility technologies in a future highly renewable grid, and address the uncertainties around technology costs and performance that are critical to planning for a reliable, low-cost, and low-carbon grid.

QUICK NEWS, February 26: World’s Women Are A Key To The Climate Fight; The Market’s Picks For Best Wind Turbine Makers; Solar’s Rising Star In The Stock Market

“…The human and economic costs of failing to act [to stop climate change] are too high…[and acting] presents a great opportunity…Climate action can lift people out of poverty and ensure their needs are met, even as the world’s population creeps towards 10 billion by 2050…[But national] governments alone cannot deliver lasting prosperity…[It will require the transformation of] our societies and our economies…Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls [is among the top ten solutions]. Including and empowering women and girls to develop and implement climate solutions is the right thing to do. It is also the smart thing to do…[But] gender equality and women’s empowerment in the field of climate change and sustainable development…[faces cultural, structural and institutional barriers] across all sectors of the economy – in private enterprise, public and political institutions and entrepreneurship. It is a dynamic we can and must change…” click here for more

“…[Preliminary rankings for the world’s top five wind turbine manufacturers found Denmark’s Vestas to be] the world’s largest supplier of wind turbines in 2017, due to the Danish supplier’s wide geographic diversification strategy and strong performance in the U.S. market…[Global new wind installations dropped 5% in 2017, primarily] due to a slowdown in installations in China. However, Europe installed more than 16 GW last year, representing [a record 16%] growth..[Solar photovoltaic (PV) was] the No. 1 non-hydro renewable energy source for the second year in a row. Global solar PV installations in 2017 reached nearly 100 GW, which is almost double the installations that wind achieved in 2017…Auctions are becoming the norm. 2017 saw auctions occur in more than 15 markets, with more than 20 GW of onshore wind and nearly 5 GW of offshore wind awarded contracts in the past 12 months. However, such transition has caused near-term market volatility, as seen in India and Germany…Mexico’s latest auction set a new world record for onshore wind with the average awarded price of USD$18.68/MWh…” click here for more

“…[SunPower Corporation (NASDAQ:SPWR) may] be a growth story in the solar industry. After years of struggling with costs that were higher than competitors' and a foundering project-finance business, the company is focusing on its roots as a solar manufacturer -- and the strategy may pay off with growth as early as this year…[but] it's where SunPower is growing that will also be important for investors…[SunPower's growth plans in 2018] included a wide range of potential deployments of between 1.5 GW and 1.9 GW of solar panels this year…The wide range comes from SunPower's joint venture (JV) in China…Growth could really start kicking into high gear in 2019. Management recently said that China's JV capacity will be [up from a maximum in 2018 to] nearly 2 GW, and still ramping…[SunPower is already in the process of transitioning] to a next-generation solar cell (NGT)…But Sunpower’s full-year] guidance of $1.8 billion to $2.2 billion of non-GAAP revenue may fall short of 2017's $2.13 billion of revenue…[because its transition may not] drive revenue growth until 2019…” click here for more

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Why New Energy Works For Everybody

The idea that New Energy is not affordable is “already a myth” and the falling cost of energy storage is making it an even better deal. “The times are changing fast.” From Global Weirding with Katherine Hayhoe via YouTube

“More than 1million trees have been pledged for Trump Forest, a bid by environmentalists to offset the US president’s curtailing of Obama-era clean energy initiatives by planting 10 billion trees around the globe…The project was launched last March and in less than a year over a million trees have been pledged from people around the world, but particularly in the US and Europe…The donated trees are to go towards offsetting the 650m tonnes of CO2 that will be released into the atmosphere by 2025 if the president’s plans to backtrack on US climate commitments go ahead…The figure of 650m tonnes – equivalent to the annual carbon footprint of 33 million Americans – is calculated from Trump’s decision to roll back the US 2015 Paris agreement pledge to lower emissions by at least 26% below 2005 levels by 2025…It would take 10 billion trees – covering a landmass roughly the size of the state of Kentucky – to offset the full amount…” click here for more

“The European Union (EU) can increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix to 34 per cent by 2030 – double the share in 2016 – with a net positive economic impact…[According to a new study,] achieving higher shares of renewable energy is possible with today’s technology, and would trigger additional investments of around EUR 368 billion until 2030 – equal to an average annual contribution of 0.3 per cent of the GDP of the EU. The number of people employed in the sector across the EU – currently 1.2 million – would grow significantly under a revised strategy…Raising the share of renewable energy would help reduce emissions by a further 15 per cent by 2030…[and] bring the EU in line with its goal to reduce emissions by 40 per cent compared to 1990 levels…[The increase in renewables would result in savings of between EUR 44 billion and EUR 113 billion per year by 2030, when accounting for savings related to the cost of energy, and avoided environmental and health costs…” click here for more

“…[Project Solar-at-Sea, a first of its kind in the world floating solar energy farm, is being developed in the Netherlands by Oceans of Energy…[Solar farms are already being deployed at inshore water bodies] but a project at sea has never been done before…[It is much more challenging because of the] destructive wind and wave forces…The project will receive $1.48 million in government funding…A pilot project for assessing the feasibility of the plan (including equipment, weather conditions, and environmental impact) will include roughly 30m2 of solar panels…The end goal is to have 2,500 square meters of solar panels in place by 2021…[During some periods the panels will be underwater and will wobble and the] impact of those dynamic shifts in tilt angle hasn’t yet been studied…” click here for more

Norway’s Floating Wind Gets 65% Capacity Factor

“…[Norwegian wind giant Statoil’s] 30 megawatt Hywind Scotland floating wind farm started operating last fall, and…[has] performed better than expected in its first three full months in production…[It has] survived a winter storm, a hurricane, and wave heights of around 27 feet while powering around 20,000 households in the United Kingdom…[Its 65 percent of max theoretical capacity performance is greater than the typical offshore wind project’s] 45 to 60 percent…[Statoil New Energy Solutions has targeted a 40 to 60 Euros per megawatt-hour by 2030 cost and is seeking new opportunities for the technology] in Europe, Asia, and North America’s west coast…” click here for more

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Using Music In The Climate Fight

“…[The Crossroad Project merges] science with music and art for a moving performance about climate change and the way humans are impacting their planet…[Its “Rising Tide” has performed around the nation by Utah State University Department of Physics Associate Professor Rob Davies and] the Fry Street Quartet…[Davies’ goal is to help close the gap] between what the science understood about climate change and what the public understood…[Davies said recent polling shows more than two-thirds of the public] are either somewhat or very concerned about climate change and that number hasn’t changed…[though] this administration has done their best to stymie efforts, certainly at the federal level, to address the problem…[But, Davies said,] the vast majority of meaningful efforts are at the city, local and state level...[and they are] beginning to grow and amplify and overlap…” click here for more

Biggest U.S. Wind Nears Go In Oklahoma

“The Wind Catcher Energy Connection project, which includes a massive 800-turbine wind farm under construction in the Oklahoma panhandle, is getting closer to lift-off…Southwestern Electric Power Company (SWEPCO), a subsidiary of major utility American Electric Power, [just announced] a settlement with various parties, including Walmart, allowing the $4.5 billion project to move forward…SWEPCO agreed to provide a number of guarantees, including a cap on construction costs, qualification for 100 percent of the federal Production Tax Credits, minimum annual production from the project, and others…The project is subject to approval by utility commissions in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma, as well as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…Wind Catcher is expected to deliver wind energy to customers in the four states by the end of 2020…The 2,000-megawatt facility [will be the largest single-site wind farm in the U.S. and will also involve] building a 360-mile extra high-voltage 765 kilovolt power line to connect two new substations, one located at the wind facility and a second near Tulsa, Oklahoma…” click here for more

Wave Power From The Heart

A device that harvests energy from waves and is inspired by the mechanics of the human heart is being tested…[CorPower Ocean’s C3 wave energy converter system [could] bring renewable power to remote islands and inlets, and produce five times more power per tonne than other systems…The C3 is a type of point absorber system. It consists of a buoy that absorbs energy from the waves, and a drivetrain to convert the motion of the buoy into electricity. [It is] based on patents by Swedish cardiologist Stig Lundback, inspired by his research into heart pumping and control functions…[It] employs a special ‘gearbox’ which works like rack-and-pinion steering on a car, converting the horizontal motion of the bobbing buoy into a sideways action that generates electricity, and, in conjunction with flexing units, allows the system to handle high forces and high velocities at the same time…” click here for more

EVs Are A Win For Everybody

“…Electric vehicles could account for half of all new cars sold by 2040..[That will allow enough scale for the EVs to] serve as a grid resource…[EV batteries could be used to stabilize the grid by providing] power when demand exceeds supply or absorb excess electricity when it surpasses demand…More renewable energy can be used on the grid…[because it can] be absorbed by the batteries and stored for later use…[The increased use of stored energy] could also reduce the amount of money utilities spend on infrastructure upgrades due to less wear and tear…[A grid stabilized by EV batteries would have less steep spikes in peak demand and face fewer] power outages…” click here for more

Editor’s note: This story is part of the national effort to reform the utility business model that makes the power system more New Energy-friendly.

A broad coalition of stakeholders in the Texas grid say investor-owned utilities (IOUs) should not have to risk their revenues to meet the demands of 21st century power consumers. Regulated utilities that advance energy efficiency and distributed energy resources (DERs) should have incentives or a rate structure that keeps them financially whole, according to a new consensus statement from the South-central Partnership for Energy Efficiency as a Resource (SPEER). SPEER members include top executives with Texas transmission and distribution (T&D) utilities, competitive electricity retailers, and advocates for efficiency, distributed resources, and energy management software. Though the group broke new ground by that regulated utilities have the right to financial protection, it could not agree on a specific remedies in the ratemaking process, SPEER CEO Bob King told Utility Dive.

DERs — including demand response (DR), energy efficiency, storage and on-site generation like rooftop solar — can help relieve system congestion and avoid traditional infrastructure costs, King said. But because of a “complex and multidimensional” set of disincentives embedded in traditional ratemaking, “utilities have no incentive to invest in them, even if they reduce overall costs.” T&D utilities are obligated to their shareholders make investments on which they earn a rate of return by the hundred-year-old regulatory construct that was created to drive investments. Today, utilities need to use new, customer-owned energy efficiency resources that reduce customer costs and strengthen the system but on which they do not earn a rate of return that benefits their shareholders. There is no financial incentive for utilities to do that...click here for more

Editor’s note: Surprisingly, the wonky topic of utility rate design is becoming cool as more people realize it could be the key to bringing New Energy into the power system.

Innovative ratemaking is the talk of the town. Trials of time-of-use rates, demand charges and time varying pricing are playing a growing role in the transformation of the electric power sector. California will deploy default time-of-use (TOU) rates in 2019 at an unprecedented scale. Landmark regulatory debates across the country have been resolved in recent months by stakeholder agreements to explore new ways to use rates to control spiking peaks. And research is beginning to point toward what works and what doesn’t. The magnitude of a TOU rate’s impact on peak demand depends on the off-peak to on-peak price ratio, Brattle Group Principal Ahmad Faruqui told Utility Dive. He also concluded that TOU rates are just a hint of how rate design can be used to lower electricity customer costs and integrate more clean energy. The better solution is dynamic pricing, he said.

Faruqui’s conclusions are based on a Brattle study of 300 TOU pilots and trials. Unlike TOU rates, which include a modest price differential on each day, dynamic pricing involves alerting customers to steeper increases in per-kWh rates in advance of specific peak demand events. Instead of a small differential every day, the larger gap between peak and off-peak pricing is meant to drive more significant reductions during the highest demand days. Jayant Kairam, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) California Clean Energy Director, sees TOU rates as a way the state can reliably and cost-effectively deploy DER. Research done for state regulators showed TOU rates could help save up to $700 billion annually by 2025. But Faruqui argues that advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and dynamic pricing has the potential to better align pricing and costs with price signals that guide customer usage… click here for more

Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that will ReCharge America by Sherry Boschert: "Smart companies plan ahead and try to be the first to adopt new technology that will give them a competitive advantage. That’s what Toyota and Honda did with hybrids, and now they’re sitting pretty. Whichever company is first to bring a good plug-in hybrid to market will not only change their fortune but change the world."

Oil On The Brain; Adventures from the Pump to the Pipeline by Lisa Margonelli: "Spills are one of the costs of oil consumption that don’t appear at the pump. [Oil consultant Dagmar Schmidt Erkin]’s data shows that 120 million gallons of oil were spilled in inland waters between 1985 and 2003. From that she calculates that between 1980 and 2003, pipelines spilled 27 gallons of oil for every billion “ton miles” of oil they transported, while barges and tankers spilled around 15 gallons and trucks spilled 37 gallons. (A ton of oil is 294 gallons. If you ship a ton of oil for one mile you have one ton mile.) Right now the United States ships about 900 billion ton miles of oil and oil products per year."

NOTEWORTHY IN THE MEDIA:
NewEnergyNews would welcome any media-saavy volunteer who would like to re-develop this section of the page. Announcements and reviews of film, television, radio and music related to energy and environmental issues are welcome.

Review of OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The American Decades by Mark S. Friedman

OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The American Decades, the second volume of Herman K. Trabish’s retelling of oil’s history in fiction, picks up where the first book in the series, OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The Story of Our Addiction, left off. The new book is an engrossing, informative and entertaining tale of the Roaring 20s, World War II and the Cold War. You don’t have to know anything about the first historical fiction’s adventures set between the Civil War, when oil became a major commodity, and World War I, when it became a vital commodity, to enjoy this new chronicle of the U.S. emergence as a world superpower and a world oil power.

As the new book opens, Lefash, a minor character in the first book, witnesses the role Big Oil played in designing the post-Great War world at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Unjustly implicated in a murder perpetrated by Big Oil agents, LeFash takes the name Livingstone and flees to the U.S. to clear himself. Livingstone’s quest leads him through Babe Ruth’s New York City and Al Capone’s Chicago into oil boom Oklahoma. Stymied by oil and circumstance, Livingstone marries, has a son and eventually, surprisingly, resolves his grievances with the murderer and with oil.

In the new novel’s second episode the oil-and-auto-industry dynasty from the first book re-emerges in the charismatic person of Victoria Wade Bridger, “the woman everybody loved.” Victoria meets Saudi dynasty founder Ibn Saud, spies for the State Department in the Vichy embassy in Washington, D.C., and – for profound and moving personal reasons – accepts a mission into the heart of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe. Underlying all Victoria’s travels is the struggle between the allies and axis for control of the crucial oil resources that drove World War II.

As the Cold War begins, the novel’s third episode recounts the historic 1951 moment when Britain’s MI-6 handed off its operations in Iran to the CIA, marking the end to Britain’s dark manipulations and the beginning of the same work by the CIA. But in Trabish’s telling, the covert overthrow of Mossadeq in favor of the ill-fated Shah becomes a compelling romance and a melodramatic homage to the iconic “Casablanca” of Bogart and Bergman.

Monty Livingstone, veteran of an oil field youth, European WWII combat and a star-crossed post-war Berlin affair with a Russian female soldier, comes to 1951 Iran working for a U.S. oil company. He re-encounters his lost Russian love, now a Soviet agent helping prop up Mossadeq and extend Mother Russia’s Iranian oil ambitions. The reunited lovers are caught in a web of political, religious and Cold War forces until oil and power merge to restore the Shah to his future fate. The romance ends satisfyingly, America and the Soviet Union are the only forces left on the world stage and ambiguity is resolved with the answer so many of Trabish’s characters ultimately turn to: Oil.

Commenting on a recent National Petroleum Council report calling for government subsidies of the fossil fuels industries, a distinguished scholar said, “It appears that the whole report buys these dubious arguments that the consumer of energy is somehow stupid about energy…” Trabish’s great and important accomplishment is that you cannot read his emotionally engaging and informative tall tales and remain that stupid energy consumer. With our world rushing headlong toward Peak Oil and epic climate change, the OIL IN THEIR BLOOD series is a timely service as well as a consummate literary performance.

Review of OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, The Story of Our Addiction by Mark S. Friedman

"...ours is a culture of energy illiterates." (Paul Roberts, THE END OF OIL)

OIL IN THEIR BLOOD, a superb new historical fiction by Herman K. Trabish, addresses our energy illiteracy by putting the development of our addiction into a story about real people, giving readers a chance to think about how our addiction happened. Trabish's style is fine, straightforward storytelling and he tells his stories through his characters.

The book is the answer an oil family's matriarch gives to an interviewer who asks her to pass judgment on the industry. Like history itself, it is easier to tell stories about the oil industry than to judge it. She and Trabish let readers come to their own conclusions.

She begins by telling the story of her parents in post-Civil War western Pennsylvania, when oil became big business. This part of the story is like a John Ford western and its characters are classic American melodramatic heroes, heroines and villains.

In Part II, the matriarch tells the tragic story of the second generation and reveals how she came to be part of the tales. We see oil become an international commodity, traded on Wall Street and sought from London to Baku to Mesopotamia to Borneo. A baseball subplot compares the growth of the oil business to the growth of baseball, a fascinating reflection of our current president's personal career.

There is an unforgettable image near the center of the story: International oil entrepreneurs talk on a Baku street. This is Trabish at his best, portraying good men doing bad and bad men doing good, all laying plans for wealth and power in the muddy, oily alley of a tiny ancient town in the middle of everywhere. Because Part I was about triumphant American heroes, the tragedy here is entirely unexpected, despite Trabish's repeated allusions to other stories (Casey At The Bat, Hamlet) that do not end well.

In the final section, World War I looms. Baseball takes a back seat to early auto racing and oil-fueled modernity explodes. Love struggles with lust. A cavalry troop collides with an army truck. Here, Trabish has more than tragedy in mind. His lonely, confused young protagonist moves through the horrible destruction of the Romanian oilfields only to suffer worse and worse horrors, until--unexpectedly--he finds something, something a reviewer cannot reveal. Finally, the question of oil must be settled, so the oil industry comes back into the story in a way that is beyond good and bad, beyond melodrama and tragedy.

Along the way, Trabish gives readers a greater awareness of oil and how we became addicted to it. Awareness, Paul Roberts said in THE END OF OIL, "...may be the first tentative step toward building a more sustainable energy economy. Or it may simply mean that when our energy system does begin to fail, and we begin to lose everything that energy once supplied, we won't be so surprised."

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